It has become a new tradition for the Platte County softball team (7-8) to travel to Papillion-La Vista, Nebraska, to compete in the Monarch Invite but poor weather rained out the games on the second day after the Lady Pirates split a pair of contests on day one.
Platte County senior Abby Reynolds attempts a bunt in the Lady Pirates 10-0 home loss to Belton on Sept. 13 before they traveled to the Monarch Invite.
The Lady Pirates went into the tournament with two straight losses to White Division opponents by a combined score of 18-5 against Grain Valley (14-4) and Belton (9-5). Platte County bounced back when it took on Papillion-La Vista (13-5) first in the Monarch Invite, coming out on top 6-2 on September 16.
The Lady Pirates went up 4-0 in the second inning when Abby Webster, Morgan Shields and Demi Riechers strung together three RBIs after they already led 1-0. Shields reached on an error in the top of the fourth inning, sending Ava Carter home and pushing the lead to 5-0.
Papillion-La Vista added its only two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the Platte County defense didn’t allow another run for the rest of the day and added another run in the top of the sixth inning. Shields singled on a line drive to center field, Crowell scored and the Lady Pirates won, with the help of Harper Humes striking out two batters in four innings.
In Platte County’s second game of the day, Millard South (14-8) only allowed two hits to come out with an 8-2 victory. The Lady Patriots opened up the contest with three runs out of the gate and the lead was pushed to seven in the bottom of the third inning when Millard South had four singles.
In the top of the fifth inning, Abby Reynolds reached on a Lady Patriot error with one out on the board. Emma Reed doubled on a line drive to right field to send Reynolds home and score the only Lady Pirate run.
After the first day of pool play, Platte County was supposed to take on Gretna (23-0) and then another Nebraska team based on the first games’ results, but that never happened due to rain. The Lady Pirates’ next opponent will be Fort Osage (12-4) on September 22.